Theatre: Scene Design: Library Resources

It can take more than 100 specialists working 8,000 hours to create the set for a single stage production. How is it done? In this extraordinary program, the dynamic process of set design for RSC productions of Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest, and Measure for Measure is described by the people who make it all happen. From creating a full-size tree for Benedick to climb that can be removed quickly between acts to fabricating a giant conch shell for Caliban to inhabit, no creative or engineering challenge is beyond the abilities of this talented team of prop makers and set builders.

Focusing on a theater company's major production departments-set, prop, costume, makeup, lighting, and sound-the video shows how the knowledge and labor of theater technicians comes to life. Information about model fabrication, painting techniques, flats and bracing, scene changes, hand props, furniture, statues and masks, period suits and dresses, light rigging, and mic placement makes this the ultimate hands-on authority for theater courses and workshops.

This program explores Appia's innovations: replacing the flat painted scenery and declamatory style of the 19th century with plastic environments for three-dimensional actors and actresses, using mobile lighting, and counterpointing visuals with music. His designs for Ibsen and Shaw productions link 20th-century theater to the freedoms of ancient Greek drama and mark Appia as the father of modern theatrical design.

The theater familiar to most modern viewers had a lowly medieval birth-in churches, on festival platforms, and in the great halls of the European nobility. Hosted by Professor Richard Beacham of King's College London, this program weaves together elaborate visual tours and the latest scholarly research, surveying the evolution of Elizabethan and Renaissance stage formations and the conventions they established. With striking depictions of the Globe as Shakespeare would have known it, the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, and the Teatro Farnese in Parma, the program also studies the importance of Sebastio Serlio and Inigo Jones to the history of stage design.

This program looks at the theatres of Herodus Atticus, Epidauros, Corinth (where Arion is said to have taught the dithyramb), and many others to explain the design of the ancient theater, the synthesis of art forms that was ancient Greek drama, the origins of tragedy, the audience in classical times, the comparative roles of writer/director and actors, and the use of the surrounding landscape in many plays.

An interview with Edward Burbridge, Designer and Painter. From their Artist and Influence series.

An intimate look inside a living time capsule, this program explores the planning and reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, presenting a day in the working life of the unique artistic institution. The video guides viewers through the facility, painstakingly designed and built to resemble the original Elizabethan playhouse, and offers commentary from the actors, artisans, and educators who practice their craft there. Illustrating how the Globe's productions breathe life into the works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, the program features thrilling performances from Romeo and Juliet, including the balcony scene and the death of Mercutio.